Even if you’re not an expert in SEO, you probably know that websites aren’t just assigned a ranking by the search engines. Websites have to earn those rankings. But that can be challenging and confusing when search engines like Google have some 500 ranking factors.

Thankfully, we’ve put together this mini guide to help you better understand the most important search engine ranking factors.

Content

Since the Panda algorithm update in 2011, Google has put a greater focus on quality content. In fact, according to Andrey Lipattsev, a search quality senior strategist at Google, content is one of the most important Google ranking factors. The reason? When you provide high-quality content that is useful, relevant, comprehensive, and valuable, you attract more website visitors and entice other webmasters to link to your site. Content can also influence other ranking factors, such as bounce rate and click-through rate.

When it comes to creating content for your website, make sure it’s the best content possible — even if that means you’re not producing as much content as you would like. Pay particular attention to ensuring it’s free of spelling and grammatical errors, provides in-depth information, and was written with your audience in mind, not search engines. It’s also been found that long-form content that contains 1,000 words or more receives more shares and likes than content that is short.

Google suggests that you don’t overstuff your content with keywords, participate in link schemes, hide text or links, create multiple copies of a page under different URLs, or hire a search engine optimization service that isn’t trustworthy or reputable.

Inbound Links

Links have always played a major role in search engine rankings. Because links have been so important in determining the rank of a website, some webmasters have resorted to purchasing or exchanging links that contained malicious malware or weren’t relevant to the site. To tackle this issue, search engines have tweaked their algorithms so only links from diverse and authoritative domains can improve rankings.

In order to obtain more quality links, you need to launch a link-building campaign that starts with producing high-quality content and promoting that content by sharing it with your audience via email, social media, and influential bloggers within your industry. You can also earn links through guest blogging and answering questions using HARO, forums, and question-and-answer sites like Quora.

RankBrain

Announced in October 2015, Google’s RankBrain uses artificial intelligence to satisfy search queries that it has never seen before in order to deliver the best search results. It’s now become the third-most important factor in Google’s ranking algorithm.

The best way to optimize for RankBrain is to write in a natural language so your website sounds human. The next time you write a blog post or article, you should read it out loud to make sure it sounds natural.

Mobile-First User Experience

Google’s index will now primarily crawl mobile versions instead of desktop versions because a majority of searches are conducted using a mobile device. Google suggests you don’t launch your website until it’s completely finished, make sure the page loads in 2 seconds or less, use responsive design, and verify the mobile version in Search Console.

Domain Factors

The age of the domain. Older, established domains typically rank higher than newer websites.

Having your keyword included in the domain.

Domain registration length. This means website owners who have paid for a domain for years in advance should rank better.

Domain history. Google will reset the site’s history if ownership is volatile.

Public vs. private Whois. Google may think the website owner is hiding something if the Whois information is kept private.

Exact Major Domain, which is a URL that consists of the keyword or keyword combination, such www.healthinsurance.com. This could help quality sites rank higher.

Country Code Top-Level Domain. This can help sites rank in a particular country, but it may limit the chances of ranking globally.

Featured Snippets

Whenever there’s a question-based query, a Featured Snippet is shown in some search engine results pages (SERPs). Snippets display content from within one of the ranked pages that directly answers the question being searched for. Featured snippets have dramatically increased the click-through rate (CTR) of results ranking within it, so it’s worth the effort to optimize your content for the Featured Snippet box.

To increase your chances of getting placed in a rich answer box, do the following:

Local

If you’re a business with a physical location, a nonprofit organization, or a university, local SEO is extremely important in helping your audience find your actual location. And ever since Google reduced the local pack from seven to three listings, competition has become increasingly fierce.

When it comes to local SEO, there are eight ranking factors you should pay particular attention to:

On-page signals that essentially inform people of the services you offer and the locations where you provide these services. Consider elements like title tags, meta descriptions, header tags, content, images, maps. Also place your name, address, and phone number (NAP) on every page.

Link signals that are specific to your location, industry, or authority sites.

Google My Business signals. Although this is wizard-driven, make sure the basics are all covered, including verifying your page; having the correct, name, address, and phone number; uploading relevant photos; providing a description; and earning five-star reviews.

Social signals, mainly being active on social media, branding your profiles, and linking to your website.

Local results also use ranking factors like domain authority and the quality/authority of inbound links.

Technical Issues

Technical issues can prevent your site from achieving a higher search engine ranking because they can hamper your user’s experience. Some of these issues include duplicate content, poor navigation, broken links, and suspicious inbound links.

Technical issues also go beyond the structure of your website. They also include on-page technical factors like:

Evolve and Thrive

The SEO industry is constantly evolving, and search engines like Google are frequently updating their algorithm factors to adapt to these changes. Despite this, if you want to earn a higher search engine ranking, make sure you’re producing rich content, earning quality links, and creating an unbeatable mobile experience for your users — which means that content and technical elements need to work together.

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